TV
Takaya: Lone Wolf, BBC Four review - enigmatic predator baffles boffinsWednesday, 04 December 2019
Who can explain the mystery of the solitary wolf who has taken up residence on an archipelago off Vancouver Island – the Discovery and Chatham Islands to be precise – and has developed his own unique hunting methods while patrolling his self-... Read more... |
The Man Who Saw Too Much, BBC One review – death camp in the cloudsThursday, 28 November 2019
Boris Pahor is the oldest known survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. In this program, the 106-year-old recounts his experiences as a political refugee and prisoner to the Nazis during their rule in his native Slovenia. As a study of one... Read more... |
Tutankhamun with Dan Snow, Channel 5 review - too many presenters spoil Egyptian boy-king docWednesday, 27 November 2019
It’s claimed that the current world tour of Tutankhamun’s extraordinary treasures will be the last, but they said that about Frank Sinatra too. Whatever, the boy-pharaoh’s life and legend will retain their unprecedented mystique, but no thanks to... Read more... |
8 Days, Sky Atlantic review - could armageddon really be this boring?Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Beware the asteroid Horus! It’s 60km wide and it’s hurtling towards Earth at incalculable speed. Scientists say, with unfeasible precision, that the impact point will be La Rochelle in France, and it’s going to destroy all of western Europe.It’s... Read more... |
The Sinner, Series 2, BBC Four review - a white-knuckle ride into spiritual darknessSunday, 24 November 2019
The first series of The Sinner in 2017 starred Jessica Biel as a disturbed woman who seemingly inexplicably stabbed a man to death on a beach, then could remember nothing about the crime. This second season on BBC Four finds Biel on board as... Read more... |
Country Music by Ken Burns, BBC Four review - grand history of fiddlers on the hoofSaturday, 23 November 2019
Ken Burns is the closest American television has to David Attenborough. They may swim in different seas, but they both have an old-school commitment to an ethos that will be missed when it’s gone – the idea that television is a place to communicate... Read more... |
Greg Davies: Looking for Kes, BBC Four review - touching insights into the story of Barnsley boy Billy CasperWednesday, 20 November 2019
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ken Loach’s film Kes, and the 51st of A Kestrel for a Knave, the Barry Hines novel it was based on. The story of Barnsley boy Billy Casper who finds an escape from his painful home life and brutal schooling by... Read more... |
Vienna Blood, BBC Two review - psychoanalysis and murder in turn-of-the-century ViennaTuesday, 19 November 2019
“Talking cures and exploring the darkness of men’s souls – are you sure this is a career for a gentleman?” This is Vienna, 1906. Freud is exerting an influence, to the disapproval of many, including the father of cool-as-a-cucumber Max Liebermann (... Read more... |
The Crown, Series 3, Netflix review - if you want binge TV, there's none finerMonday, 18 November 2019
Although it conforms to a realistic chronology of events, this third season of Peter Morgan’s remarkable voyage around the House of Windsor (on Netflix) has the feel of a sequence of standalone dramas, linked together by its interrelated characters... Read more... |
The Accident, Series Finale, Channel 4 review - ambitious mini-series leaves many unanswered questionsFriday, 15 November 2019
Channel 4’s The Accident closed with a bang and a whimper. Jack Thorne provided a definitive answer to his series’ central question, but his characters and subplots petered out in the meantime.Over four episodes, this series examined the fallout of... Read more... |
Britain’s Lost Masterpieces, Episode Three, BBC Four review – more than a bit of BotticelliThursday, 14 November 2019
Once again the whodunit becomes the whoforgedit in the newest installment of the Britain’s Lost Masterpieces series. Host and art historian Bendor Grosvenor introduces us to what is one of the most beautiful he’s ever seen: a Madonna and Child... Read more... |
Gold Digger, BBC One review - Julia Ormond tackles those mid-life bluesWednesday, 13 November 2019
A tip of the hat to Julia Ormond for boldly going where many an actress might have chosen not to. In this new six-parter by Marnie Dickens, she plays Julia Day, a mother of three who’s just divorced her husband and is turning 60. Dickens’s objective... Read more... |
